Plickard Siler, from Germany

Being a Siler from Whitley County KY. I would suggest you get the Siler BookWritten by Theodore E Siler.Roots and Shoots written in 1982.I have attached two pages from the book.

“The village of Siler (so lately sprung upon us) with its mills, cottongins, machine shops, stores and tobacco warehouses, is certainly an infant city.And far down in the ages that are coming, when all Silers may haveimmigrated or “evoluted,” somebody will want to know the origin of the name of thecity. The name ‘Siler’ originally signified a rope maker, or perhaps a dealerin, or worker with ropes.In the year 1741, a boat left its moorings high up in Germany on theclassic banks of the Rhine, laden with emigrants bound for America. At Rotterdam,they took a seagoing vessel and were landed on American shores. One of theparty of emigrants was a small, dark skinned youth of twenty-two years, bearingthe name of Plikard Dederic Siler (born in Germany, May 29, 1719). Anotherwas a sprightly, fair haired, blue-eyed girl of fourteen summers, whose namewas Elizabeth Hartsoe (born in Germany, September 29, 1727).The two became attached to each other during their long voyage; a few yearsafter which Plikard, under a law of the times, paid in leaf tobacco for theprivilege of marrying Elizabeth, and they settled down as man and wife inPennsylvania.After a while, they heard that sweet potatoes could be grown in NorthCarolina, and that they were a delicious eatable, so they concluded to go down tothat goodly land. On the way, (and in Virginia) they struck the potato belt—bought someand boiled them with meat over their camp fire. They didn’t like them, butbravely moved on, found the spot that suited them among the hills of Lacy’sCreek, four miles north-west of where the village of Siler now stands, and nearwhere Mr. Samuel Siler lived until his death, which occured September 29,1900, aged 90 years.Here they lived and raised a large family (six sons, whose names werePhilip, Weimar, John, Frederick, Jacob and Plikard, Jr., and four daugh­ters),and here they died—Plikard, December 15, 1784 – Elizabeth, January 16, 1816,—and though now quietly sleeping in the old, old churchyard at Rocky Riverchurch (about four miles north of Siler City), Plikard and Elizabeth are verylargely and very respectably represented not only in the Counties of Chathamand Randolph and in ourmountain counties from Buncombe to Cherokee, but in almost every stateNorth-west, West and South.“The lands where the little city is going up has been the property of theSiler family for about one hundred years. The present owner was liberal withthe Railroad Company, and it is to be inferred that the village was named inappreciation of his generosity and his high social standing.“Soloman Siler, a grandson of Plikard, amassed the greatest wealth of anyof the family. Between fifty and sixty years ago, he moved to Alabama. Betweentwenty and thirty years ago, he died leaving largely of landed estates andover four hundred slaves. The writer of this claims to be one of the family;and he is wanting in some few of the most distinguished features of realdestitution such as—he don’t hunt, he don’t fish, he don’t smoke, he don’t havefifteen children, and he don’t have nine dogs.”—signed MILO